Welcome! Chess fans, to the Games showcase post, where we will look at some interesting games from the ninth round of the Saturday Weekly Tournament. My sincerest apologies for the delay in this post. I had a lot on my hands to bear all at once.

The highlighted games feature either brilliant tactics, resilience, or good upsets. Game winners will share in the reward for their games being featured in this post. Rewards would be paid in Liquid.

In the last game feature post, I paid @rosmarly and @justfavour 10% of the previous post reward. (2.4 Hive each)

20% of this post will be shared among the featured players (10% each), and it will be paid out in liquid.

Please don't forget, if you feel confident about any of your games during the Saturday weekly event, drop a link in the comment section in the report post next Sunday.

Game 1

@jaki01 vs @poseout87

1. f4 d6 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. O-O O-O

It is no longer strange, Jaki, to play the bird opening as he has done in the past tournament rounds against other players, but this time he was playing it against Poseout, a well-known theoretician of the Pirc defense, and that is exactly what he played against Jaki's bird opening.

This is what the position looked like after 5 moves. Making it an obvious fight between the bird and the pirc. Who will play it better? As white goes for an expansion of the pieces on his kingside, black does the same thing on his king as well.

11. c6

Black ran into some serious trouble after playing the move c6. This is because it leaves no safe square for his knight on g4. The moment the black knight on b4 gets attacked, it has no safe square to run to because all other squares have been occupied by black's pieces, and the remaining ones are controlled by white pieces.

a3.

White wasted no time in spotting the move that punishes black's blunder with c6. The move a3 attacks black's knight, but now the knight will simply get captured no matter where it runs to. This means black will lose a piece no matter what he does to save the knight.

Things got interesting after black gained to white pawn in exchange for his dead knight and then tried to create a passed pawn on the a-file. Unfortunately, the compensation was not enough for him since there was a blockade formed against the passed pawn, and white created some counter strikes on the black kingside. With that, white went on to win the game after he got rid of black's passed pawn.

Here is the game link to watch the full game:
Game Link

And here is the game PGN

[Event "Saturday HiveChess S1R9 Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/rPJt7RLB"]
[Date "2025.08.30"]
[Round "-"]
[White "jaki01"]
[Black "ManFromSpain"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2266"]
[BlackElo "2337"]
[ECO "A02"]
[Opening "Bird Opening"]
[TimeControl "180+0"]
[Termination "Normal"]

1. f4 d6 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. O-O O-O 6. d3 Nc6 7. e4 e5 
8. Nc3 Re8 9. Qe1 a6 10. h3 Nb4 11. Qf2 c6 12. a3 exf4 13. axb4 fxg3 
14. Qxg3 Qb6+ 15. Qf2 Qxb4 16. Ra4 Qc5 17. Qxc5 dxc5 18. Be3 b6 
19. Rfa1 a5 20. Rf1 Bb7 21. Raa1 h6 22. Rf2 Nd7 23. Raf1 Re7 
24. Bf4 b5 25. Kh1 a4 26. Bd2 b4 27. Nd1 a3 28. bxa3 bxa3 
29. Nc3 a2 30. Ra1 Bxc3 31. Bxc3 Ra3 32. Bb2 Ra4 33. Nd2 Re8 
34. Nc4 Ba6 35. Nd6 Rb8 36. c4 Rb3 37. Nxf7 Rab4 38. Rxa2 Nb8 
39. Nxh6+ Kh7 40. Ng4 Rxd3 41. Nf6+ Kh6 42. Bc1+ Kg7 
43. Ne8+ Kg8 44. Kh2 Rxc4 45. Bf4 Rb3 46. Bxb8 Rxb8 47. Nf6+ Kf7 
48. Rxa6 Rb7 49. Rxc6 Rc3 50. e5 Ke7 51. Ne4 Kd7 52. Rxg6 Rc4 
53. Rg7+ Kc8 54. Rxb7 Kxb7 55. Nd6+ Kb6 56. Nxc4+ Kb5 57. e6 Kb4 
58. e7 Kxc4 59. e8=Q Kb3 60. Qe5 c4 61. Rf3+ c3 62. Qxc3+ Ka2 
63. Qb4 Ka1 64. Rf8 Ka2 65. Ra8# 1-0

Game 2

@madchess64 vs @tangibleay

Tangibleay won round 9 of the HiveChess Saturday Tournament with a total of 50 points, and one of the games used to achieve that is this game against MadChess. This game is an example of an all-out attack on the king, which is what Tangible did to Madchess's king. He started with a pawn storm, then later turned it into a mating attack. Let's look at the game.

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 Bf5 4. c4 e6 5. Qb3 b6

The opening is a Queen's Pawn Game: Colle System, Anti-Colle, where you can white is going for some play on the queenside and black tries to stop it while considering fast means for development. Hence, the reason for b6 on the chessboard. White's queen is hitting on the b7 pawn, and black responds with b6 to avoid the pawn from getting captured, and the move could help with a later strike in the center when he goes for c5.

Things got interesting at this point when black goes for h5. The plan is to launch a pawn storm on the king's side since there is some positional concession on the board for white with his kingside pawns on h2, g3, and f2, leaving a hole on g2, and black's dark bishop is also eyeing the diagonal leading to white's king side. That is not all, after h4 from black, black's queen can be aiming for a chance to join the attack as well.

Black has finally got what he wants. Aligning all his pieces on the h-file to launch an attack on the kingside. Now that has been achieved, the rook captures the piece on h2, and the checkmate is no longer avoidable, only a matter of time. Through the pawn storm on the white king, black was able to get the attack he wanted, and that way he got the win to click the standings.

Here is the game link to watch the full game:
Game Link

And here is the game PGN

[Event "Saturday HiveChess S1R9 Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/Ka4B80mx"]
[Date "2025.08.30"]
[White "MadChess64"]
[Black "Tangible_ay"]
[Result "0-1"]
[GameId "Ka4B80mx"]
[UTCDate "2025.08.30"]
[UTCTime "15:59:54"]
[WhiteElo "2002"]
[BlackElo "2252"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "-3"]
[BlackRatingDiff "+2"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[TimeControl "180+0"]
[ECO "D04"]
[Opening "Queen's Pawn Game: Colle System, Anti-Colle"]
[Termination "Normal"]

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 Bf5 4. c4 e6 5. Qb3 b6 6. cxd5 exd5 7. Nc3 c6 8. Bd2 Bd6 9. Be2 O-O 10. O-O Nbd7 11. Rac1 Qe7 12. Nb1 Rac8 13. Bc3 Ne4 14. Nbd2 g5 15. Nxe4 dxe4 16. Nd2 g4 17. g3 h5 18. a3 h4 19. Rfd1 hxg3 20. hxg3 Qg5 21. Nf1 Kg7 22. Nh2 Rh8 23. Kg2 Rh3 24. Rh1 Rch8 25. Bb4 Bxb4 26. Qxb4 R8h6 27. Qc3 Nf6 28. d5 cxd5 29. Qc7 R6h5 30. Qf4 Qg6 31. Rc7 Qh7 32. Qe5 Rxh2+ 33. Rxh2 Rxh2+ 34. Kf1 Rh1+ 35. Kg2 Qh3# 0-1

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The reminder post with the tournament link and time will be up soon. Looking forward to the next round. Special thanks to @edicted for the idea of rewarding brilliant games weekly.

See You on Saturday!

Thanks For Reading!

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